Technology

Creating A Connected Home with Best Buy, Canary Home Security System and NetGear #BBYConnectedHome

October 14, 2015 by Lisa 1 Comment

When I was a little girl, I wanted to live with the Jetson’s. As an adult, I still want to live with the Jetson’s, mainly for their handy-dandy robot, Rosie. Since that’s possibility isn’t likely to happen in the near future, I have been incorporating different tools to help make my home more connected in order to live up to the futuristic ideals of the Jetsons and my own imagination. I work from home with my office door shut and find myself walking through the house to investigate the “bumps” I hear occasionally. Recently, I’ve been using the Canary Indoor Wireless High-Definition All-In-One Home Security device to monitor the things that go bump in the night, or when I’m writing and editing.

The Canary Indoor Wireless High-Definition All-In-One Home Security device helps keep your home safe and sound with motion detection notifications, a 90+ dB siren, and HomeHealth Technology. It learns the cadence of your home so it can send you accurate notifications with fewer false alarms triggered by pets or other regular activity in your house. The first few days after installation, my husband was working out of our open living area and my phone received multiple alerts every hour. The adaptive technology learned his habits of pacing when on business calls and adjusted the settings, saving my battery and notifications thread. When he’s not working from home, the Canary device also adapts quickly to no one walking by where I have cameras positioned and adjusts for the lack of movement. Score one for technology!

Pros:

Canary is the only home monitoring device currently on the market with a 90+ decibel siren and a localized emergency call feature, which allows you contact authorities close to home from anywhere in the world.
Since the March 2015 launch, nearly 75 known burglaries, home invasions, caretaker abuse and other emergency situations have been captured by Canary, resulting in multiple arrests
Canary’s HomeHealth feature lets you know if the temperature and air quality of the home is safe and comfortable – you can monitor the air quality, temperature and humidity in your home from almost anywhere
Canary is a great way to check in on kids or caregivers. If the device is set to “Arm,” you receive a notification when someone arrives in your home. Use the “Watch Live” feature to check on everything from homework being done to house rules are being followed
Canary pairs well with other devices and is super easy to set-up
Canary picks up sounds and allows you to sound the siren from the viewing screen, as well as make an emergency call

As with any technology, there are always a few cons:

The camera on the Canary security device is stationary and doesn’t allow for adjustment up and down, or side to side. If it’s in the middle of the room, I would like to be able to adjust the camera from my smartphone app and look more closely into corners if needed
Forgetting your husband is home when testing the Canary 90+ dB siren might make you consider calling an ambulance for a brief moment because you scared him so badly. Laughing until you cry during that situation is not helpful

I paired the Canary security device with a new Netgear Nighthawk DST Router and DST Adapter. This brand new router was developed by Netgear and Best Buy, as an easy, all-in-one solution to support your homes connected devices. As an added bonus, Best Buy even includes Geek Squad Set Up and Support via phone and web support, for one full year. Due to the layout of our house, my wi-fi, while fast, was non-existent outside of my front door — and my office is beside the front door. Now I’m picking up my home wi-fi at the mailboxes two houses down and my downloads have never been faster in my office thanks to the DST Adapter.

Get rid of wi-fi dead zones

One of the main reasons for adding this router to my tech arsenal was due to the number of connected devices we have. The average American home has at least 7 Wi-Fi connected devices connected on their home network at any time. Using these devices, while binge watching Netflix or Hulu (guilty!) takes a toll on your system. With the Netgear Nighthawk DST Router and DST Adapter, I no longer have to live in fear of experiencing slow Wi-Fi, dropped calls, or “dead zones.”

My setup was a little more complicated, due to my wi-fi and modem being an all-in-one combo. A quick call to Best Buy’s Geek Squad (and one to my ISP to have the wi-fi on my modem turned off) and I was cooking with gasoline. (I could have bridged the routers, but chose not to for the sake of this review and testing purposes.) Geek Squad is like your very own IT department ready and waiting to assist with any tech problems or needs.

Geek Squad support will get you up and running plus, customize the router settings on your Netgear Nighthawk DST Router and DST Adapter
With the touch of a button on the router, support can easily connect your wireless devices and secure your network
- 24/7 Phone and Web Support for one year if you ever have questions or need help

Features:

The power of Nighthawk, now with built-in DST technology—enables add-on DST Adapters to eliminate dead zones with the push of a button
Dual Core 1GHz dual core processor enables maximum WiFi performance
700mW high-power amplifiers for extreme range
3 external antennas for maximum signal coverage
Prioritized bandwidth for streaming videos or music (Important with teens!)
Implicit & Explicit Beamforming
Dynamic QoS—Delivers bandwidth prioritization by application and device
ReadyCLOUD® USB Access—Enjoy personal & secure cloud access to USB storage anytime, anywhere
NETGEAR genie® with remote access

Disclosure: This is a review for Best Buy. I was sent product, but was not compensated.

Make Skype Part of Your Autumn Adventures

October 6, 2015 by Lisa 1 Comment

Autumn. Just saying the word “Autumn” encourages me to breathe a little deeper, my shoulders to drop into a deeper stage of relaxation, while my sense of wanderlust grows stronger. All I want to do is slip on my boots and head to the country for a weekend away to enjoy long drives down the Blue Ridge Parkway, take even longer walks and listen to the sound of leaves crunching under my feet. Autumn also brings sensory elements we associate with the season: crackling fireplaces, warm apple cider, leaves burning bright with vivid colors, geese honking, and the wind rustling the leaves.

Life for us is super hectic, and these getaways are important to me and my family. I have to put a little more care and planning into what we’re doing, which is why I now try and do things less “seat of the pants” and create a quick agenda for our travels. But not to worry, I’m still the one who wakes them up at 4 a.m. to tell them “get dressed, we’re going on an adventure!” Now there is just a little more organization. (It’s working so far and the only grumblings I’m hearing is from my non-morning person husband.)

5 Travel Tips to Help with you plan your Autumn Adventures:

1. Seeing is believing: There’s nothing more horrifying than checking into your cozy mountain cabin and finding that it doesn’t quite stack up to the appealing images you saw online. Before you sign that contract with any vacation rental company, ask your host if it’s possible to get a Skype tour. In addition to looking inside the home, check out outdoor accommodations such as the hot tub and parking.

2. Personal concierge: People’s smartphones have turned into a one-stop-shop for all things travel, from directions, restaurant recommendations, mobile boarding passes and more. Additionally, mobile digital personal assistants such as Cortana Trip Planner helps take the stress out of traveling so you can kick back and relax. Should you book a last minute get-away to New England, Cortana will let you know when online checking opens up, the latest weather at your destination, and keep an eye on traffic for your voyage to the airport.

Cortana has quickly become one of my favorite tools to use when planning a trip.

3. Plan ahead: Tools like Skype allow you to easily plan a group trip with group video calls and chats to share destination ideas, and even share photos from your trip. Keep the planning details together by storing things like reservations, flight confirmations and itineraries in OneNote.

4. Back up your memories: Most mobile phones have impeccable cameras these days. If you’re using it to take pictures of your travels, make sure you back up your photos to OneDrive before you leave, creating space for all the new ones.

5. Ditch the international mobile plan: Traveling internationally can be expensive, but there are many free and low-cost resources to save you money. Traveling to Paris for the Spring fashion shows? (Held in October — you’re taking me with you, right?) With Skype To Go, you can call home and check in with family for a low calling rate. No data plan required! Or, you can even send texts directly from Skype. Left your phone at home? No problem, you can also connect for free using Skype for Web. Most hotels have a business center so it’s super easy to connect. Just go to web.skype.com and you’ll be instant messaging in no time.

Travel in autumn is a sensory filled experience that is made better with a little planning and using great tools, like Skype, to help plan your adventures.

Disclosure: This was not a sponsored post.

Piper nv: Super Easy — Home Automation and Night Vision {w/ Giveaway} #MyPiper #PiperSecurity

June 26, 2015 by Lisa 16 Comments

This is a sponsored post

I’ve been using the Piper nv for several weeks as an addition to my home security. We recently returned from our summer vacation and the Piper nv was added piece of mind to have while traveling. The Z-wave technology allowed me to connect other home automation processes, such as controlling lights, additional sensors monitoring doors and windows, not to mention night vision technology that allowed me to log in and check on my house, even at 3:00 a.m.

With Piper, You’re Always Home

The Piper nv is about the size of a soda can and connects to your smart phone via wi-fi. You can place it where you would like in your home, or use the adapter and mount it. This photo was taken when I was in Florida and had turned the lamp on in the living room using Piper. However, images taken using only the night vision feature were also crisp and clear.

Visual Impact with Night Vision and HD Camera

The resolution is great. While I’d love for it to have the clarity I have when I’m looking through my camera with a prime lens on it, the HD camera features a 180˚ iewing angle and a 3.4 megapixels. (The original Piper had a 2 megapixel camera.)

Home Vital Statistics

With Piper, I am able to log in and check on things at different times throughout the day, as well as turn lamps on and off, and not worry about an automatic switch or timer starting, or not turning off. Piper nv kept me alerted to temperature changes in my house, severe weather issues, and when my best friend forgot to set Piper nv to the home setting when she was in watering my plants I was sent a text message and video started recording.

This photo is a screen shot of my “Home Vitals” as monitored by the Piper nv. This is the past 48 hours in my home, showing temperature differences, changes in light, when people are moving, and spikes in sound.

Two-Way Audio

It’s surreal checking on your home while you’re away and hearing the train chugging by as you sit in your hotel room far away from any train tracks. The two-way audio provided by Piper allowed me to check in and do not only a visual, but auditory check.

As you know, I have a teen and his favorite thing to do so far on his summer break is nothing whatsoever. When I’m in my office working, I like to open up my Piper nv app and use the two-way radio to talk to him. I’ll be honest with you, I normally start whispering his name to see if I can get his attention. It’s also brought a little relief while he’s cooking to make sure I’m not walking into a huge mess in the kitchen.

What is Piper nv missing?

Not much. If your wifi was to go down while you’re away, your piper would not work. There is also no current way to export or access the data from the device. After checking their site, I couldn’t find anything about a public API, but that doesn’t mean it won’t happen in the future. My husband is a big fan of the website “If-This-Then-That” and is hoping he’ll be able to integrate Piper into his IFTT automation scripts.

Would I buy Piper for myself?

Without a a doubt and there are more on the way for my home, along with sensors for every window, as well as more plugs for me to automate outlets in every room. All of these items connect together and are easily monitored and controlled by your smartphone or tablet.

Win a Piper nv!

Do you want to win a Piper nv of your own? Please enter my giveaway hosted by Rafflecopter. It runs until midnight on July 5 and the winner will be notified July 6.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
You can also visit these blogs for more chances to win a Piper nv of your own!

Piper nv: Automate & Monitor Your Home in Less than 10 Minutes by Thien Kim of I’m Not the Nanny

Piper nv Home Security Camera by Michele McGraw of Scraps of My Geek Life

Piper nv: Easy to Use and Upgraded Camera Automates & Monitors Your Home (w giveaway!) by Leticia Barr of Tech Savvy Mama

Read more about the Piper nv here: Securing your home during summer vacation with Piper nv

Piper NV Technical Specs:

Night Vision
Enhanced HD Resolution
3.4 Megapixel Camera
180 fisheye camera to monitor in many directions.
Pan, Tilt, Zoom & Quad-view
Motion sensor
Temperature sensor
Humidity sensor
Light sensor
Sound meter / microphone — you can listen to what’s going on in the room remotely
Internal accelerometer — to tell if someone is tampering with the Piper unit

Find Piper Online:

Piper: http://hubs.ly/y0Try20
Piper NV: http://hubs.ly/y0Try20
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PiperByiControl
Twitter: @HelloPiper

Giveaway Terms and Conditions:

Open to legal residents of the fifty (50) United States and District of Columbia, Eighteen (18) years of age or older. Void where prohibited
Approximate retail value of the prize will be $279 USD, courtesy of Piper. No substitutions or cash exchanges.
Winner may be required to provide email, shipping address and/or phone number for shipping purposes ONLY. Information will not be used for anything else.
Winner is selected by a random Rafflecopter drawing.
Winner will be notified via email ONLY.
Winner has 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.
Complete contest rules, prize description/value/number of prizes available upon request.

Disclaimer: I received products from Piper for testing purposes and was compensated for this post and giveaway. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Best Fiends: From the Green Glades to the foothills of Mount Boom

June 21, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

I’m a phone or pocket gamer. You know, the person you see sitting in the carpool line, head down, looking at something seriously and with laser focus. I’m not texting, I am gaming. So when the makers of reached out to me and said “Hey! We’d like you to play out game and let us know what you think about it” I was all for it. I am a Best Fiends fiend.

Get ready for the slime of your life

FIEND (NOUN) [/FEEND/]: “A MYTHICAL, MISCHIEVOUS LITTLE CREATURE INHABITING THE WORLD OF MINUTIA.”

My life is super fast and I am online consuming and producing an enormous amount of information daily and there are times I just want to shut my brain off. Gaming on my phone is how I take a few minutes to clear my head and not focus on anything. It’s like a shortened form of a novel, except this novel has visually stunning graphics, a soundtrack that doesn’t drive me nuts, and adorable creatures who do a celebratory dance when I help them defeat a slug and we head off on our next adventure. It’s a quick fix that allows me five minutes here and there to clear my head as I travel through the land of Minutia as Lisa Savior of the Best Fiends.

The small creatures who inhabit Minutia lived in harmony until a meteor struck and smashed into Mount Boom, transforming the Slugs who lived there into this cranky army of greedy, greenery-gobbling pests. It is my role to help the heroes fight back and I love a good story where the good guy saves the day and squashes the slugs while on an epic quest to not only save his parents, but beat back the slimy trail left by the Slugs. So much more fun than sitting in carpool wishing the line would move or a cool breeze would blow through to cool me off.

Confession time: I can be something of a nag when my husband drives because I’m pretty sure he doesn’t think the legally posted speed limit applies to him and reading while riding makes me carsick. (Yet, I can fly and read. I’m so weird.) We have been on vacation for the past week and I spent 3 plus hours in the car playing Best Fiends yesterday. That’s right, Best Fiends helped me maintain the status quo as we were driving up I-95 from Florida back home. My husband still likes me and I didn’t ruin the chill vacation mood. Instead of saying “it’s a 60 zone, not 80” I was happily ensconced in Minutia, battling Slugs while he battled traffic, cheering when I defeated the cranky gastropods and growling a little when I ran out of energy and had to wait for a refill. Oh, don’t you need a break honey? Let me drive. We’ll switch when my energy is full.

Who is my favorite fiend?

Edwards is my favorite fiend. He’s a sad little skeeter who’s ashamed of his family’s bloodsucking ways. His mission is to undo the damage done his kind and has teamed up with Malaria No More to help end this vicious disease that infects 200 million people a year.

I also really like Temper. He does a little celebratory jump when I win my puzzle and level up.

Need to know:

Best Fiends is free to download on the App Store, Google Play and Kindle: http://bit.ly/fiendapp
There are in app purchases, so if downloading for the kids, make sure you have your phone set to block these types of purchases

Find Best Fiends Online:

Online: http://bit.ly/fiendapp

Instagram: https://instagram.com/bestfiendsofficial/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bfiends

Twitter: https://twitter.com/bestfiends

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/SeriouslyHQ

Google+: https://plus.google.com/117967944676870225340/about

Learn more about the Best Fiends Score:

Seriously Digital Entertainment:
Best Fiends is the first property from Seriously, an entertainment and gaming start-up made up of a world-class team of industry veterans. Together, the team has worked on games that have over two billion downloads at companies such as Natural Motion, Disney, Remedy, Fox, Supercell and Rovio.

Disclosure: I was paid to play Best Fiends. Sometimes I can’t believe this is my life, but getting paid to game is up there with winning the lottery. Any opinions are mine. If you need me this week I’ll be trying to beat Level 62.

Stealth Concealment — Concealing cell phone towers like cheese disguises broccoli

March 25, 2015 by Lisa Leave a Comment

Cell phone towers are everywhere. Have you ever seen a really large flag pole? Or a tree that seems to be a lot taller than the surrounding ones. Chances are you are looking at a cell phone tower. There are roughly 21 cell phone sites for every McDonalds in the United States and if you’ve ever had a dropped call, you will agree when I say we do not have enough. The problem is cell phone towers are ugly. If you’ve ever seen one in the wild, you know what I’m talking about.

I was happy when Stealth Concealment reached out to me to talk about their company and how they work to conceal cell phone towers. As a new homeowner, I’m concerned about what’s happening visually outside of home — I like sitting on my front porch and watching the grass grow. As a social media marketer, I am also concerned about my mobile phone service and being connected. While I’m not part of the 91% who feel cell phone service is more important than coffee (Who are you people?), I am one of the 7 out of 10 homeowners (albeit a brand new one) who are concerned about the appearance of cell phone towers.

Since I live in an area that looks like Norman Rockwell drew it for the cover of the Saturday Evening Post, making sure a new cell phone tower is camouflaged is very important to me as I don’t want our small community to lose its charm. We would either have to lobby for the cell phone service providers to conceal the towers with something as equally charming, or talk to our community leaders to make sure the tower didn’t detract from our picturesque beauty.

When I go home to visit in Western, North Carolina, mobile service is poor. I always know when a new cell phone tower has been installed based on how far up I have service when driving north on the rural two lane highway. Many cell towers used to stand out in the open, but now they are so well disguised I can’t pick them out.

Knowing what happened to our beautiful mountains before ridge laws were put into effect, hiding cell phone towers is very important to me. I want it to blend into the landscape and not be an eyesore that takes away from my beautiful state. I’ll just have to remember that we’re not the land of redwoods when I see an abnormally tall longleaf pine.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Everywhere Society and Everywhere has provided me with compensation for this post. I also love broccoli without cheese and with. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.